$170M to help battery tech Co. improve li-ion batteries

Battery materials producer Sila Nanotechnologies secured $170 million of additional funding on Tuesday to fuel its work in improving lithium-ion battery storage capacity, largely from German automaker Daimler AG.

With the latest round of financing secured to bring the company’s total to $295 million, the company began increasing its production volumes and plans to supply its first commercial customers in consumer electronics within the next year.

The company is developing a silicon-based material to replace graphite in a lithium-ion battery in the hopes of accelerating battery life and performance while also being commercially viable at scale.

"Improvements to traditional li-ion battery chemistry have stalled to a mere 1-2% increase every few years, holding back the potential of everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles. Sila Nano’s breakthrough chemistry demonstrates a dramatic 20% improvement today, with the potential to reach 40% improvement over state of the art traditional li-ion," the company said.

Additionally, the company is planning to enter the automobile market with BMW and Daimler in the next few years.

"We’ve cracked the code on silicon thanks to eight years and 35,000 iterations," Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO said, and added that they are ready to bring the product to market and insert it into electric vehicles and other every-day devices.

"The final product easily drops into existing li-ion factories, clearing the path to broad adoption," the company underlined.

The company said it would ensure consistent supply by using widely available sources.